


Sticks, stardust, & stones

by Sylvalum



Category: Sonic X, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Families of Choice, Gen, Ghosts, Kid Fic, in which Tails somehow gets roped into babysitting for the rest of time, or something like that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-03 22:26:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13350780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylvalum/pseuds/Sylvalum
Summary: Galaxina calls Cosmobig sister.And Tails is justTails, because Tails doesn’t want a title which wouldn’t fit anyway.





	1. Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Tails & Cosmo are both older in this story. (And so's everyone else, but that's not Important)  
> The big deal here is Tails trying to act like a... big brother, so.

He dreams.

The life bleeding out of them. Sonic, drowning among the stars – swallowed in the depths, so _afraid_ of water. Amy, so _afraid_ of Sonic dying; screaming, roaring, wielding her hammer until it’s ripped away along with her life. Cosmo, salt on her cheeks as she turns and turns and walks away, the rest of them fretting or frozen and nobody notices until Tails looks down from his seat at the bridge and sees her-

In his nightmares, nobody even knows what Cosmo is about to do before Tails is crying across the communicator. He doesn’t know why he’s the one who always knows what she’s doing. Why he’s always the one, whose voice can’t reach her. And in his nightmares, everyone still alive stands quietly, just waiting for him to do it. Just waiting for him to press the button, just waiting with disappointment like it’s-

He always wakes up just as light, malicious killing light, pierces the distance between them…

-And he wakes, sits up and breathes and breathes, hands running over his face- until he’s calmed down enough to _think_ , and then he always looks to the right. Tonight there’s just a shimmery fog hanging next to his bed, but still there comes a soft, gentle voice, “ _You did the right thing. You saved them all.”_

Tails would think he was slowly becoming mad, if it wasn’t for the fact that ghosts had been proven to exist in this universe.

“You died,” he says very flatly, and turns his back to the spirit.

“ _One life, one_ spy _, sacrificed for the whole of the universe._ ”

Tails doesn’t reply, staring stubbornly at the wall. He’s got photos, hanging there. Most of them are of Sonic, Amy, Cream, or Chris – because all his photos of Cosmo (which are so _few_ ) are safely tucked away in a little box.

“ _I wanted this,_ ” Says Dead-Cosmo. And then, firmer, “ _I wanted this, I chose this._ ”

They’ve had this argument, different script every night, about fifty-three times now.

-Sometimes Tails just tries to tell her to go away, leave, but she just hangs around silently. He can feel her presence, so he still knows she’s there when she turns invisible… you can’t see much usually, anyway. Just a sort of blue tinged shape, short hair, flowing dress. Sometimes her hair is longer. Sometimes her eyes are glowing blue.

Sometimes it’s just mist and a voice.

“ _…I’m happy with this outcome._ ”

Tails really hopes that’s a lie. “You aren’t.”

“ _Yes I am!_ ” She exclaims, and the curtains ripple, the photos flutter. “ _You’re all safe! No one can turn me against you anymore! No one can- can use my eyes to spy on you.”_

“Cosmo,” Tails says slowly, a bit angrily, “Your entire _race_ went extinct because of me. Your-“

“ _No!_ ” Dead-Cosmo blurts out, irritably. “ _It didn’t! My race will grow back. New life is being born out on the distant worlds-“_

“Your entire family is dead because of me!” _The entire YOU is dead because of me!_

“ _…Actually,_ ” says Dead-Cosmo. And finally, Tails feels a chill of… something, up his spine. “ _No. My family isn’t dead, if that’s what matters. I left my sprout with you.”_

“You-“ oh. Oh dear. Oh _what_. “The f-flower-?”

“ _It’s my child_ ,” says Cosmo sagely. 

\----------

He dreams.

The Blue Typhoon glides slowly through space, and in his dreams there’s a ballroom. In his dreams Chuck and Ella and Tanaka are there, even Frances and Danny, and they all wear suits and dresses. Vector dances with Vanilla, Amy _tries_ to dance with Sonic, and Tails is just walking through the crowd, letting the colours and sound wash over him. Everyone’s voice echoes, in his dream.

And then there’s a gap in the crowd, and he sees Cosmo. She’s wearing a long green dress which shimmers underneath the lights, and her hair is full of roses, her smile full of warmth. She waves at him breezily with a slender hand, and her eyes glow so blue… He always starts walking before he knows it, and the crowds part like it’s magic. Like it’s- like it’s fate-

He’s close enough to touch her, when she collapses. She always collapses, and when he reaches for her, she always melts away through the floor…

When he wakes, he’s clutching desperately for his sheets, for a hand which isn’t there. His heart beats so hard it hurts, his eyes burn- and then he remembers to _think_ , forces himself to breathe. He glances to the right, like always, and there’s a faint blue silhouette hovering in the air. When Dead-Cosmo sees that he’s looking at her ( _through_ her), she raises a slender hand and waves carefully.

He throws a pillow. He thinks he might be crying, and throws the second one, so angry, so full of _hurt-_

“Why are you here?” he cries. “Don’t you have other planets to look after?”

The silhouette looks at him sadly, hunching in on itself. _“Because you’re here. And her.”_

-He just _knows_ she’s talking about that – that plant again. 

One-hundred and eighteen visits. He’s keeping count.

_And her._

…After that, all fight just leaves him.

“I – I can’t-“ _I can’t just raise your child. I’m what, thirteen?_ “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“ _So_ I _thought, the first time you beat the Metarex.”_

“…I cannot deal with this discussion right now. Goodnight.”

\----------

He remembers.

Embarrassing discussion. Smiling, feeling reassured, trying to walk away—and then, _then_ they’re promptly launched into the air, falling into the lake. The moon, so large and wondrous and bright, seeing that brightness reflected in _her_ eyes. The water lapping at them, but Tails recalls that he couldn’t have cared less about getting wet-

He tells a little bit of that, a little less awkward, tells it as a story to _The Child._

The Child is tiny, with big green eyes and frizzy blue hair, some sort of leaves tucked into it. Cosmo named her, the child, Galaxina, after her own deceased sister…

Some days, Tails doesn’t know what to think.

But Cosmo looks twice as alive when she talks to Galaxina, tells her about culture and peace and war and how plants grow and wither. So Tails doesn’t mind Not-Knowing, for once.

…Galaxina calls Cosmo _big sister._

And Tails is just _Tails_ , because Tails doesn’t want a title which wouldn’t fit anyway.


	2. Traits

The house stands on a cliff by the sea, and the wind is always strong and salty there. Endless beaches stretching on and on and on ‘til sky meets sea, and a night sky so big it seems to gradually eat up the land after sunset. Tails’ workshop is in the basement, and there’s a runway built in the cliff. Inside the house itself, there’s two empty guestrooms, and Tails spends three weeks repainting and renovating and refurnishing the bigger one.

On the door, he puts up a sign saying ‘Galaxina’s room’.

…And then, he invites all his friends over for a party. Because so far, the only ones who knows about Galaxina’s existence are himself, Cosmo, Sonic and Cream…

He waits until most of them have arrived, and then he tells Galaxina to come downstairs and say hello. Many eyebrows are raised, while Sonic just smirks, and then little Galaxina pads into the room…

-and everyone just. 

“Since WHEN did you have a-“

“A _child_ , Tails?”

“She’s so cute! What’s your name?”

Tails holds up a hand, and the room falls silent. Gods, he thinks he might be blushing- “This,” he says quickly, “Is Galaxina. She’s my… charge.”

Galaxina, after the initial wariness and wow-so-many-people, says cheerfully, “Hi!”

* * *

Waking up with flailing limbs and with his heart beating a mile a minute, Tails stumbles out of bed and collapses on the floor. Voices and images cling to him like black tar and he struggles to breathe- they all were dying, it was too late, _too late their life force had drained away with only dry husks left and-_

_“Tails?”_

He starts and nearly hits a table. “Cosmo,” he gasps. Turning around, slowly, breathe slower-

 _“It’s just a dream,”_ says the blue silhouette.

“Not a dream,” Tails snaps, anger taking the place of sorrow and fear, pointing at – at the blueness- “You’re dead.”

 _“I’m at peace with it,”_ Cosmo says curtly. 

-and then the door behind Cosmo opens, and Galaxina steps inside. She’s holding a – a stuffed chao. She asks anxiously, “Tails?”

He blinks. And then he rubs first his forehead, and then his eyes. “Galaxina. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“You didn’t!” Galaxina exclaims. “We looked at stars, but then Sister went away.” She looks sad, and now it’s Cosmo-the-spirit who quickly says,

 _“I just had to ask Tails something!”_ She turns glowing blue eyes back to Tails, and- _“Could you help me name the stars? The constellations here are- they’re not what I’m used to.”_

Of course they weren’t.

Tails sighs, and stands up. “Sure. I’ll get my astronomy book…”

* * *

When Galaxina is four, Tails takes her to visit a Chao Garden.

Sunset Springs is a beautiful forest filled with streams and little lakes, and hundreds of Chao have made it their home. All of the Mobians in the area help to care for them, and there’s an entire village dedicated to all and everything Chao, like fruits and hats and a kindergarten, even. There’s a little hospital and a racing track, and you can buy souvenirs with Chao prints.

…The trip ends with Galaxina having five more stuffed Chao than before, and with Tails promising and pinky-swearing that he’ll get her a Chao, a _real_ Chao, once she’s old enough.

* * *

He starts teaching her how to fly when she’s five.

That is to say, he digs out his old plane, and sits her down in the cockpit and shows her what all the levers do, and how she shall Never, Ever, Unless Tails Says It’s OK, touch the red button.

“So what does it do?” she asks, always curious.

“Stuff goes boom,” Tails says. “Seriously, don’t touch it, ok?”

“…Ok.”

(…When he later _does_ have to put out a blazing tree, he 100% blames Sonic for Bad Influence.)

* * *

Other things he could blame Sonic for, are things like Galaxina’s growing recklessness, and how she thinks _speeding_ is the coolest thing since blue milkshakes. She also likes cupcakes with blue icing, all kinds of cold and slushy drinks, and _baking_ , which must be because Cream is The Fun Cousin who lets Galaxina add as much sprinkles and chocolate and icing as she wants.

Tails doesn’t mind the baking – but the mess of the kitchen afterwards, he does.

…He cleans anyway, because Galaxina is five years old and cries easily if it means things going her way. Cream usually helps with the mopping up, though, so it could have been worse.

Amy comes around much more often now that she can hang out with Galaxina, because she adores the little rascal. She teaches her board games and how to tie ribbons and – and plans to teach her boxing, which is when Tails says stop.

“She’s five, Amy,” he has to remind her. “She could get hurt.”

“But you bring her to your workshop!” Amy counters. “That’s dangerous, too.”

“No! Because we’re not actively trying to hit things that hit us back!”

Amy relents. Tails is relieved, and content for now. So is Galaxina too, after Big takes her out somewhere deep in the woods to go fishing. 

Galaxina will grow up surrounded by Tails’ friends, with so many Cousins and Uncles and Aunts. Yet no blood relatives; only Cosmo-the-Ghost who tells her of destroyed worlds and forgotten cultures, late at night, and sings her the songs their people used to have. And – and Tails feels like Galaxina has a little of Sonic’s demeanour, a little of Amy’s stubbornness, all of Cosmo’s compassion-

-but that she has inherited nothing, _nothing_ of Tails’.


End file.
